| 18 February 2005 | Friday | 08 Muharram 1426 |
An Iran-Syria alliance?
Corporal punishment
In what can be described as a breakthrough in the India-Pakistan composite dialogue, the two sides have reached an agreement on key issues that should hopefully help break the logjam in their relationship.
Foreign Minister Kasuri, who met the Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh in Islamabad on Wednesday, announced in a joint press conference that the two governments had decided to allow travel by bus across the LoC in Kashmir between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad.
This could well prove to be the beginning of a turnaround in South Asia. This proposition had been on the table since last year but the sticking point was the travel documents of the visitors that would be acceptable to both sides.
By agreeing to an entry permit system rather than formal passports, New Delhi and Islamabad have clearly established that accommodation is always possible if the political will exists.
With an understanding having been reached on opening further communication links for promoting people-to-people contacts - a bus service between Lahore and Amritsar, and the Khokhrapar-Munabao rail link is to be started - one can hope for further cooperation between the two countries.
The outcome of the talks between Mr Kasuri and Mr Singh has been positive and if the trend is sustained the two countries should be able to go much further on the road to ditente.
For instance the gas pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan which is now in the offing should create an economic compulsion for the two South Asian neighbours to keep their relations on an even keel.
The discussions on accords on reducing risks of nuclear accident, and the talks on MoUs between their maritime security agencies and narcotic control agencies and the reopening of the consulates in Karachi and Mumbai will not only expand cooperation between them, as Mr Natwar Singh pointed out, but will also create a climate conducive to friendly relations between the two countries.
Although these might appear to some to be peripheral issues, they are not. In international relations in the globalized world of today, it is not possible for countries to pigeonhole various areas in their external ties with their neighbours and treat each sector individually. Foreign policy has to be taken as a comprehensive and composite issue which has to be conducted with a holistic approach.
It has been pointed out by some observers of the scene that the core issue of Kashmir remains untouched and the Baglihar dam, which has now emerged as a major concern for Pakistan, has not been taken up either.
No doubt, these are important matters but in diplomacy it is not always possible or desirable to prioritize items on the agenda. Besides, negotiations do not always move in a linear direction.
Many issues are interrelated and progress on one can lead to progress on others. Thus, the significance of the agreement on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service is not to be underestimated.
It will allow interaction between the Kashmiris on both sides of the LoC which should facilitate a resolution of the Kashmir dispute. It is the people of Kashmir who have to decide their political destiny. For that it is essential that they be allowed to meet one another freely, engage with each other politically and thus develop a consensus on the future of their state.
An Iran-Syria alliance?
Thanks to Israeli-American sabre-rattling, Iran and Syria are thinking of forming a joint front to defend themselves as hinted by Syrian Prime Minister Naji Otri. Militarily, of course, they are no match even for Israel, much less for the world's only superpower.
But Tel Aviv and Washington have apparently left Tehran and Damascus with no choice but to unite. Every other day, there is some kind of threat to these two countries. Iran is already a part of President George Bush's "axis of evil", and Syria has been under US sanctions.
Last September, a pliant Security Council passed Resolution 1559, asking Damascus to pull its troops out of Lebanon. Iran has also been accused of having a secret nuclear programme for military purposes.
In fact, things now seem to be moving toward a climax. Iran and Syria would not be wrong in coming to the conclusion that an American and/or Israeli attack was a real possibility.
Should the neocons in Washington have their way and the two countries are attacked, the Middle East will enter a new phase of widespread war, strife and anarchy. Of course, militarily America and Israel will have no difficulty in devastating Syria and Iran the way they have Iraq.
But it is the terrible aftermath that they should worry about more. The first casualty of the Middle Eastern people's fury will be the "moderate" Arab regimes. The Arab-Islamic masses will simply not tolerate any regime that would condone or appear to condone another attack on the Muslim heartland.
An attack on Iran will also infuriate Iraq's majority Shia community, and any possibility that the post-election era will lead to stability in Iraq will evaporate. Such a military adventure will also scuttle the peace moves which Israel has lately made towards Palestine's post-Arafat leadership.
In such a scenario one can expect Palestinian freedom fighters, the Iraqi resistance, the Hizbollah, the Hamas and all others joining in a united anti-US-Israeli front to face what will appear to be a fresh attack on the Muslim world. Such a Middle East will hardly be the place where the US will be able to advance its political and economic interests and prosecute its war on terror.
Corporal punishment
While most schools in the country still appear to take the antediluvian philosophy of "spare the rod and spoil the child" quite seriously, what they forget is that along with child labour, corporal punishment is the chief reason for the high drop-out rate in schools.
This fact was underlined by human rights activists at the District Bar Association in Larkana the other day, with reference to the problem in Sindh, where they said the twin scourge was responsible for 50 per cent of the drop-out figure.
Although child labour can be eradicated only over time, corporal punishment can be ended much sooner, thus improving the image of the school system in a country which has the highest primary school drop-out rate in the world. But this can only be brought about by a joint effort by parents and governments to convey to the teachers that corporal punishment in any form is totally unacceptable and that those found guilty of inflicting beatings and other cruel penalties on children will be taken to task.
Unfortunately, the few voices that have been raised against corporal punishment in schools appear to have gone unheeded, and teachers, especially instructors at madressahs, continue to wield the stick and terrorize students with impunity.
Last year, the Sindh education ministry had placed a ban on corporal punishment in schools throughout the province, but one has yet to see signs of its implementation. The same is the case in Punjab where teachers were warned that such punitive action against children could result in dismissal from service.
There was also some talk in late 2003 about the introduction of a parliamentary bill abolishing the practice, but this did not materialize. Unless the government acts fast, thousands of children will continue to suffer physically at the hands of their teachers, who have found in them a convenient outlet for their own frustrations.